Hon’ble Sir,
At the outset, we are thankful for your reported inclination towards implementing revised pay scales with 25% fitment benefit in respect of BSNL executives, even though BSNL does not fully meet the affordability condition stipulated by the 3rd PRC but BSNL is already on revival path and reporting operational profit for last few years. In this regard, we would like to draw your kind attention to the fact that MTNL employees were allowed pay revision as recommended by 2nd PRC w.e.f. 1.1.2007 with the highest 30% fitment benefit although the affordability clause existed then and MTNL was incurring loss for consecutive years.

2. We now learn that BSNL Board has approved a proposal for pay revision and has submitted to the administrative department i.e., the Department of Telecommunication.

3. It is needless to say that BSNL was formed when Hon’ble Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji, was the Prime Minister of India, with a Mission to provide world class, State-of-art technology based telecom services on demand at affordable prices and to provide world class telecom infrastructure to develop country’s economy. At the time of Corporatisation, while approving HRD and financial issues arising out of the corporatisation, the Union Cabinet had assured that “Government will consider and provide a package of measures so that the viability of BSNL is not impaired because of implementation of any socially desirable uneconomic activity, such as rural telephony, undetaken by BSNL at the behest of Government”.

4. Since then, BSNL has been discharging the social obligations of the Government of India by providing services in remote and rural areas inspite of incurring loss because of these services and its presence in the Telecom industry as a fully Government owned PSU, aiming at providing world class services at affordable tariff, has been accepted by every stake holder as a ‘moderating factor’ in controlling the tariff in favour of the customers.

5. When all private networks failed to provide dependable service during natural calamities, whether it was Hudhud cyclone in Andhra Pradesh, Vardha cyclone in Tamilnadu, Floods in Tamilnadu and Uttarakhand, Earthquake in Jammu & Kashmir, BSNL was the only operator which proved its robustness.

6.2 BSNL’s role in ensuring GST compliance also cannot be under estimated. BSNL introduced GSP/ASP service on PAN India basis to assist Small and Medium Enterprises as well as large business houses in transitioning to GST by launching an application software which will record invoices on a PC / hand held device or a smart phone along with all GST compliances like preparation of GST Returns, Assistance in generation of GST challans for payment, filing of GST Returns, sending back mismatch invoices etc. BSNL also played an effective role during demonetisation in last November by providing seamless network connectivity among banks and financial institutions.

7. Recently BSNL has signed (MoU) with Fiber Home to jointly start manufacturing telecom equipment and optical fiber cable in BSNL factories, underscoring another initiative by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India – ‘Make in India’.

8. BSNL revenue over the past three years is increasing. The year 2013-14 saw an increase in revenue of 3.2%. The year 2014-15 saw an increase of 2.32%. In the year 2015-16, the increase in income is 14.92% whereas in the same year the expenses decreased marginally by 1.47%. The loss is declining and BSNL is likely to make profit in 2018.

9. While these are sufficient ground justifying revision of pay scales of BSNL employees with 15% fitment benefit, we would like to draw your kind attention towards another major fact which cannot be ignored or overlooked.

10. All the senior officers of Department of Telecommunication who are on ‘deployment’ in BSNL, holding major managerial positions in BSNL have already got their pay fixed in revised scales as per the recommendations of VII Central Pay Commission with 14.2% fitment benefit w.e.f. 1.1.2016. All of them draw their higher pay and perks from BSNL and BSNL’s affordability to pay was not at all an issue for them. If BSNL employees are denied the revised pay with 15% fitment benefit, it will result in an unprecedented discrimination against its own employees vis-à-vis those who are under ‘deployment’. The fall out of such a situation will be unparalleled in the history of indian Public Sector.

11. It will be therefore unfair if BSNL executives are denied their due pay revision in the name of non-affordability, since such a proposition will have a negative impact on their morale which in turn will affect the revival plans of BSNL.

12. We therefore earnestly request you to kindly get the issue examined thoroughly and to ensure that pay revision as per 3rd PRC recommendations are implemented in BSNL with 15% fitment benefit in view of its strategic national importance.